Samsung UN65MU6300 vs UN65KU6300 Review – What are their differences?

Samsung UN65MU6300 is part of Samsung’s 2017 4K Flat HDR 4K TV series 6, while Samsung UN65KU6300 is the predecessor, a part of Samsung’s 2016 4K HDR Series 6. Despite both of them are the low-end of Samsung UHD TV lineup, the quality of the picture produced by them is above average due strong contrast and good black uniformity produced by them. Additionally, both of them also offer a good set of features like attractive Smart TV, good Motion Handling, Low Input Lag for games, and more. This certainly makes you more comfort when enjoying 4K home entertainment without spending a huge of money because their price indeed is relatively to cheaper than the higher series. So, as a newer model, what improvements do which offered by UN65MU6300 over the predecessor UN65KU6300?

Short Review of Samsung UN65KU6300

Samsung UN65KU6300 is one of best selling TVs in 2016. In addition its price is affordable, as an entry level TV, picture quality and performance that offered is also not disappointing. Additionally, it also already supports HDR technology, particularly HDR 10 format by UHD Alliance. And the other strong point that featured by UN65MU6300 is about Tizen as its smart TV platform.

For producing strong contrast and good black uniformity where they become the major strength of the good picture quality produced by UN65KU6300, it comes with VA panel with Direct Led Backlight and supported by the number of technologies like UHD Dimming, Ultra Clear Panel Technology, and others. For Processing HDR signals, it is powered by HDR Premium technology that already support HDR 10 format. But unfortunately, comes with HDR technology, UN65KU6300 is not certified by Ultra HD Premium Certification by UHD alliance due some of its display specs don’t meet the minimum recommendation for displaying HDR 10 video fully like what intended. Nevertheless, considering it is an entry level TV, HDR performance produced by Samsung UN65KU6300 still can be said well. Additionally, the other good performances offered by UN65KU6300 are about its good motion handling, great UHD Up-scaling Engine, and low input lag. Smart TV is also the other interesting thing that offered by Samsung UN65KU6300 where it is simple, responsive, and provides tons of interesting and useful apps.

Since it comes with VA panel, poor side viewing angle certainly becomes the major drawback of UN65KU6300. The picture will be degraded rapidly started at 20 degrees off center and front. The other drawback, it is not equipped with 3D technology.

Short Review of Samsung UN65MU6300

Come as a successor of UN65KU6300, Samsung UN65MU6300 offers picture quality and performance which not far different to the predecessor. Overall, picture quality is above average, particularly when used in a dark room or a moderately bright room due its strong contrast and good black uniformity. Behind its panel, Samsung UN65MU6300 also uses VA panel with Direct Lit LED backlighting and powered by UHD Dimming and Essential Black Pro Technology for improving black level and contrast. Still focus on HDR, UN65MU6300 is powered by 4K HDR Pro technology for processing HDR signals and also support HDR 10 format only and might be also HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) with a software update in future once the HLG standardization is confirmed. Nevertheless, like the predecessor, its HDR performance is still limited due the color gamut coverage and peak luminance of UN65MU6300 doesn’t meet the minimum recommendation for displaying HDR 10 fully set by UHD Alliance.

Like the predecessor UN65KU6300, Samsung UN65MU6300 is also equipped with great performance UHD Up-scaling Engine that up-scale lower resolution content to 4K quality sharply and clearly. Additionally, it also has low pixel response time that allows you to enjoy fast moving videos like sports program smoothly and virtually no motion blur. The input lag of UN65MU6500 is also very low that makes it is very comfortable when used for playing any kind of games. And as smart TV, Samsung UN65MU6300 features newer version of Tizen OS.

Like the predecessor UN65KU6300, poor side viewing angle is a major drawback of UN65MU6500. But even so, as long as you don’t often watch TV from side viewing angle, this should not be a problem. Additionally, this TV also lacks 3D technology.

Samsung UN65MU6300 vs UN65KU6300 Performance

Picture Quality

Overall, picture quality produced by Samsung UN65KU6300 and UN65MU6300 is similar and above average. One of the major points that makes the picture displayed on their screen looks very good is about their deep black level, strong contrast and good black uniformity produced by them. All of them certainly makes blacks look absolute dark even when set in a dark environment. The result, details of images in shadow or dark scenes looks very clear, particularly when they are displaying HDR videos. As the note, both of them can produce about 5500:1 of contrast ratio and 0.018 nits of black level, while black level required for displaying HDR 10 videos fully is about 0.05 nits. This certainly makes dark scenes of HDR image displayed on their screen looks excellent so provide a good movies experience in a dark room.

On the other hand, peak brightness reached by Samsung UN65KU6300 and UN65MU6500 is average. It is only bright enough to make bright scenes looks excellent set in a dark room. Meanwhile, when set in a room with bright lights, their peak brightness is not bright enough to fight the glare. Additionally, their peak brightness is also still far to make the highlights of HDR images achieve at least 1000 nits like as what recommended for displaying HDR 10 videos fully. Meanwhile, compare between them, Samsung UN65KU6300 has a bit brighter peak brightness than UN65MU6300 that certainly makes its bright room performance is a bit better. Nevertheless, their difference in peak brightness doesn’t have a big impact on their picture performance on the whole.

Moving on color performance, both of them also offer similar performance and equally don’t support wide color gamut that required for displaying HDR 10 videos like what intended. As we know, for displaying HDR videos fully, this needs at least 90 % of DCI P3 color space while what reached by both of Samsung UN65MU6300 and UN65KU6300 is still less than this recommendation. Color gamut delivered by them is only able to properly show REC.709 color space of SDR images. Meanwhile, when displaying HDR images, most of colors in HDR videos might still be shown properly, but there will a bit issue on deep colors. Nevertheless, overall, color of the picture displayed on their screen still looks accurate. Meanwhile, talking about their color gradient, both of them already support 10 bit panel that means both of them can deliver about 1.07 billion shades of color. The result, color gradient of the picture displayed on their screen looks very smooth without any major color banding. Small anomalies might still be noticeable in darker shades of color, but overall, this should not be a serious issue for them.

Both of Samsung UN65MU6300 and UN65KU6300 are also equally equipped with great performance UHD Up-Scaling engine. This allows you to enjoy any resolution video contents with the quality close to 4K resolution. The result, no matter the resolution of your source, even 480p videos like DVDs movies, all of them displayed clearly and sharply in 4K quality. And of course, the higher resolution of the source like 720p movies or 1080p movies, the final images in 4K that produced will look sharper and clearer with a lot of more details preserved well. And considering most of the contents which available in the market still have lower resolution than 4K, this feature certainly is still very important.

Since both of Samsung UN65KU6300 and UN65MU6300 come with VA Panel technology, this certainly makes they have poor side viewing angle coverage. The quality of the picture displayed on their screen will start to deteriorate at 20 degrees off center and front. And the wider the viewing angle, the picture degradation will be more noticeable. Nevertheless, since poor side viewing angle is a native drawback of VA panel, they certainly are not alone. All of VA TVS even premium TVs that sold hundreds even thousands dollar more expensive also have the same problem in side viewing angle.

Motion Handling and 24p Playback

Samsung UN65KU6300 and UN65MU6300 also have a similar performance when handling motion blur. Although not the best in class, their pixel response time is quite low, results in smooth and clear picture quality without too much motion blur when they are displaying fast moving images like sport program or fast movies. In certain scenes, motion blur might not be eliminated completely, but it is just a short trail following fast moving objects where most of people might don’t notice about that. Meanwhile, when displaying 24p movies, both of Samsung UN65MU6300 and UN65KU6300 still have a problem with judder. No matter the source of movies, whether it is native 24p contents like Blu-Ray Movies, 24p via 60i signal like movies from TV Satellite, or 24p via 60p signals like movies from streaming media, when displaying them, both of them cannot completely remove the judder. Fortunately, most of people don’t sensitive to judder, so this should also not be a problem for them. This issue certainly is only for the people who are too sensitive to judder.

Inputs/Outputs

In term of inputs/outputs, they are also similar. Both of them equally equipped with 3 HDMI ports support HDCP 2.2 and 2 USB Ports. They might not be as many as what provides by most of 4K HDR TVs that available in the market, but I think, it is quite enough to cover most of your other HD devices. In addition to HDMI and USB ports, both of Samsung UN65MU6300 and UN65KU6300 are also equipped with 1 Composite In (AV In), Component In, RF In (Terrestrial), Ethernet, and Digital Audio Out (Optical). Meanwhile, about their input lag, both of Samsung UN65KU6300 and UN65MU6300 also have low input lag. Their input lag is equally low under game mode. This certainly makes them very comfortable when used for playing any kind of games with any resolution, even for fast paced games. A bit improvement of UN65MU6300 over UN65KU6300 is about their input lag under PC mode where the input lags of UN65MU6300 far lower than UN65KU6300.

Smart TV

Essentially, Samsung UN65MU6300 and UN65KU6300 features similar smart TV platform that is Tizen OS with Smart Hub. The difference is about their versions where UN65MU6300 as a newer model comes with 2017 version while UN65KU6300 comes with 2016 version. A bit improvements on 2017 version over 2016 versions is about their theme and animations where Tizen OS 017 comes with white theme and nicer animation that makes it is more attractive. Nevertheless, about performance and features, there are not many changes.

Both of them are equally powered by a quad core processor, results in fast and responsive performance. The loading in time of an app once it is launched is very quick. Additionally, the selecting between apps when multitasking is also feels very responsive. Meanwhile, navigation on Tizen OS is also feels simply and easily. Once a “home button” on the remote is pressed, you will be taken on “home screen” interface where there is a narrow bar at the bottom of the screen contains quick access to many features and apps. This allows you to access most of features and apps without leaving the home menu. Meanwhile, apps provided are very complete and varies. There are VoD Service like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu Amazon Videos, and more, Web Browser, Cloud Games, Screen Mirroring, Samsung apps Store, and many more. In addition to defaults apps provided, you also can download tons of apps on Samsung apps store.

Samsung Smart COntroller

Meanwhile, Samsung UN65KU6300 and UN65MU6300 are also equipped with similar remote control called Samsung Smart Controller. The remote is very simple and just have few buttons, even there is no “number button”. Nevertheless, it is equipped with built-in microphone for voice navigation or voice search functionality. The other advantage, it is can be functioned as a universal remote for controlling other devices connected on your TV.

Summary

Conclusion

As we have discussion a lot above, there are not many major improvements on Samsung UN65MU6300 over UN65KU6300 as the predecessor. Their picture quality is similar, as well as the features that offered, they are not many differences. Both of them offer good movies experience when set in a dark room, but on the other hand, their performance in an extremely bright room is not so good due its peak luminance is not too bright. Come with HDR technology, they are not also able to display HDR 10 videos fully like what intended due they don’t support wide color gamut and their peak luminance is still below 1000 nits as the minimum recommendation for displaying HDR 10 videos fully. Nevertheless, overall, picture quality and HDR performance offered can be said great for their price range and above average.

Both of Samsung UN65KS6300 and UN65MU6300 also have good motion handling and low input lag that makes them very comfortable when used for watching fast moving images like sports program and for playing any kind games. Meanwhile, the major drawback of them is about their poor side viewing angle where the picture will looks degraded started at 20 degrees off center and front.

Which is a better choice between them? You need to know, when I was writing this comparison, Samsung UN65MU6300 is sold a bit more expensive than UN65KU6300. And considering performance that offered is almost similar, in my personal opinion, UN65MU6300 is a better choice. In addition to it is a newer model, it is also sold cheaper. Additionally, since it is recently released, its price might still be drop as time goes by. But even so, if you want a bit brighter TV, UN65KU6300 might be a better option for you. Now, the decision comes back to your according to your preferences. But even so, before you decide to choose one of them, there are a lot of opinions from each of their real customers where you can make as your further consideration.

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